1. Semiotics

2. What is Semiotics?
 It is the study of signs and symbols and their use or
interpretation.
 Derived from Greek word “semiotikos” meaning
“interpreter of signs”.
 Science which studies the role of signs as part of
social life
 Formal doctrine of signs
 Investigates the nature of signs and the laws
governing them
 Natural and artificial languages are central to
semiotics, though its field covers all non-verbal
signalling. Knowledge, meaning, intention and action
are therefore fundamental concepts in the theory of
Semiotics

3. What is a Sign?
 Saussure and Peirce were concerned with the
definition of sign Words, images, sounds,
gestures, objects
 3 classes of signs
 Symbol – signifier does not resemble the
signified (fundamentally arbitrary or purely
conventional)
 Icon – signifier is perceived as resembling or
imitating the signified
 Index – signifier is directly connected in some
way (physically or causally) to the signified

4. Ferdinand de Saussure
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Saussure´s sign definition “ the sign is the whole that
results from the association of the signifier with the
signified”
Signified and Signifier are both psychological (form rather
than substance) Saussure´s model of the sign refers only to
a concept and not to a thing
Saussure Same signifier can stand for different signifiers
depending on the context Saussure was focusing on the
linguistic sign (such as a word) The link between signified
and signifier is arbitrary (nothing ‘treeish’ about word ‘tree’)
No specific signifier is ‘naturally’ more suited to a signified
than another Saussure was more concerned about linguistic
signs and speech

5. Charles Sanders Peirce
 Peirce´s sign definition
 Representation – form which the sign takes (not
necessarily material)
 Object – to which the sign refers Interpretant – idea,
interpretation in mind
 The sign relation is the key. It defines three roles
encompassing
 The sign
 The sign's subject matter, called its object
 The sign's meaning or ramification as formed into a kind
of effect called its interpretant (a further sign, for
example a translation

6. Charles Sanders Peirce
 Peirce´s sign definition
 Representation – form which the sign takes (not
necessarily material)
 Object – to which the sign refers Interpretant – idea,
interpretation in mind
 The sign relation is the key. It defines three roles
encompassing
 The sign
 The sign's subject matter, called its object
 The sign's meaning or ramification as formed into a kind
of effect called its interpretant (a further sign, for
example a translation